"Nonrepresentable section on output" error during linking on linux

Question

I get this error at the linker stage when compiling the webkit-1.1.5 package on my Ubuntu 9.04 box:

libtool: link: gcc -ansi -fno-strict-aliasing -O2 -Wall -W -Wcast-align -Wchar-subscripts -Wreturn-type -Wformat -Wformat-security -Wno-format-y2k -Wundef -Wmissing-format-attribute -Wpointer-arith -Wwrite-strings -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-parentheses -fno-exceptions -fvisibility=hidden -D_REENTRANT -I/usr/include/gtk-2.0 -I/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/include -I/usr/include/atk-1.0 -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/directfb -I/usr/include/libpng12 -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include -I/usr/include/libsoup-2.4 -I/usr/include/libxml2 -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include -g -O2 -O2 -o Programs/.libs/GtkLauncher WebKitTools/GtkLauncher/Programs_GtkLauncher-main.o -pthread  ./.libs/libwebkit-1.0.so /usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so /usr/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so /usr/lib/libpangoft2-1.0.so /usr/lib/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so -lm /usr/lib/libpangocairo-1.0.so /usr/lib/libgio-2.0.so /usr/lib/libcairo.so /usr/lib/libpango-1.0.so /usr/lib/libfreetype.so -lfontconfig /usr/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so /usr/lib/libgthread-2.0.so -lrt /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so -pthread
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/nagul/build_area/webkit-1.1.5'
WebKitTools/DumpRenderTree/gtk/TestNetscapePlugin/TestNetscapePlugin.cpp: In function ‘NPError webkit_test_plugin_get_value(NPP_t*, NPPVariable, void*)’:
WebKitTools/DumpRenderTree/gtk/TestNetscapePlugin/TestNetscapePlugin.cpp:221: warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to ‘char*’
WebKitTools/DumpRenderTree/gtk/TestNetscapePlugin/TestNetscapePlugin.cpp:224: warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to ‘char*’
WebKitTools/DumpRenderTree/gtk/TestNetscapePlugin/TestNetscapePlugin.cpp: In function ‘char* NP_GetMIMEDescription()’:
WebKitTools/DumpRenderTree/gtk/TestNetscapePlugin/TestNetscapePlugin.cpp:260: warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to ‘char*’
/usr/bin/ld: Programs/.libs/GtkLauncher: hidden symbol `__stack_chk_fail_local' in /usr/lib/libc_nonshared.a(stack_chk_fail_local.oS) is referenced by DSO
/usr/bin/ld: final link failed: Nonrepresentable section on output
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [Programs/GtkLauncher] Error 1
make: *** [all] Error 2

I'd like some pointers on how to attack this problem, either by looking into the "hidden sybmol" error or by helping me understand what the "Nonrepresentable section on output" message from the linker actually means.

I have already checked that this is consistent behaviour that persists across a make clean;make invocation.

Answer 1

I've received the "nonrepresentable section on output" error when crosscompiling for ARM and some of the libraries was not correctly compiled with -fPIC. Pretty sure that's not the error here though...

Answer 2

Please try removing the -fvisibility=hidden option from the commandline. It will produce a larger object (with some unnecessary symbols, which won't matter in the end because it is an execultable), but should eliminate the problem. This is not a solution; rather a workaround. Please check (this is just a hunch) if there are no libc version mismatches between libraries and GtkLauncher.o